Musings of a fantasy author in a wibbly wobbly world.

Look closer at the comments surrounding the Sony DDOS, if you scratch under the surface of the previous support for Anonymous , it may just prove to be wafer thin.

As I type this article I have visions of flame wars, insults and bad feeling. I would hope that it is seen as an article which merely makes an observation and asks a question (with a little of my own opinion thrown in).

I have never supported or condoned the DDOS attacks and I believe the announcement from Anonymous and the subsequent downtime of the Playstation network with its family of websites, shows a rather interesting result.

For those that don’t know, Anonymous announced that as a result of the case against Mr Hotz, Sony would be the target of its next DDOS attack. Shortly after, Sony is alleged to have announced that certain parts of the network would be down for maintenance leading some to speculate that either they were better securing against impending attack or that they had already fallen victim and were trying to cover up the fact.

After reports of non-delivery of service, forums were flooded with comments from users, but before we look at some of those, I refer back to my previous views on the Hotz case.

I was of the opinion that Sonys actions against Mr Hotz were damaging to the Sony image and grossly disproportionate. I’ve stated that whilst I champion their products, the actions against Mr Hotz, coupled with the removal of “otherOS”, hurt the image of a company of whom I hold their products dear.

When Anonymous was attacking the likes of ACS:Law it was all ticker tape and fanfare, it’s an entirely different beast when PS3 users can’t access the network.

if this still keeps up then everyone expect every more annoying sony updates and restraints anonymous needs to leave this alone

I agree that keeping large corporations in check should be a priority for every consumer. I just think that doing so with my wallet is a fair bit more effective than DDoS and a childish motto/mantra/creed.

The more of these social degenerates that end up in prison, the better for society.

As we can see, there is some bad feeling here (try looking at a PS3 gaming forum!) and whilst we cannot assume to summarize the majority of public opinion from the comments section of some forums, I think this time around it’s not unreasonable to suggest that Anonymous may have overestimated their own popularity and the general publics belief in their cause.

I think Sony too has made a mistake. Forgetting this recent attack, I think its fair to say they came under fire for their recent actions. In light of the comments made by users, if I had been Sony I would have let Anonymous bring down my services so that the backlash from users would probably sway public opinion to my side and whilst my services would be down for users, one could argue that the support for my actions would increase. This could well be a side effect if Anonymous is successful with another attack and may, if comments from many “average users” are a typical mindset already be the case.

As it stands it seems to me that from the average user support for the Anonymous cause is strong, until that is, it starts to encroach on their lifestyle.

My views on Sony’s actions on Mr Hotz remain, although I brought up a few points on the TechBytes show which maybe were not put forward clearly enough:

If we are to assume that Sony will press on with the case against Mr Hotz AND we are to assume that Sony is trying to quantify in a court the damage Mr Hotz has done, surely the accidental retweet by a Sony Twitter bot would frustrate that somewhat, since the retweet brought even more attention to the case ergo the Rootkey?

Issues with Anonymous

I believe anonymous themselves did much to dispel a claimed ranking structure within their group. I believe Anonymous did much to claim it was merely the product of a group of random people whom are collectively asserting their opinion. If this is the case then by its own design I think they damage their own voice. What’s from stopping anyone forming an Anonymous and going off on their own crusade, thus producing a mish-mash of conflicting ideals under the same Anonymous banner?

I often read a comment which fits with my views perfectly and that is, if you disagree with the actions don’t buy the products – vote with your wallet. I have always believed this a far better way than some simple java or c# program which can ultimately end up with you in trouble (loic)

It will be interesting to see where this all ultimately leads as its reported that Sony has retained the services of Prolexic Technologies and this is seemingly proving to be successful.

Linux on the PS3

Ive used and championed Linux for many years. The other facet of the article (and maybe another reason for the DDOS) is the removal of OtherOS from the PS3. I was disappointed when the feature was removed from the PS3, but come on! How many people actually bought the PS3 on the back of solely using it as a Linux machine on a TV? Lets get serious here, that’s what we have desktops, laptops and whatever else. Are we really saying that Linux on PS3 was the selling point for the vast majority of users? Come on.

When you say Linux to many people today you are still sometimes met with confusion and I would guess that the vast majority of gamers would have no need or interest in installing Linux on their PS3 and why would they? They are gamers.

I saw Linux on PS3 as an added bonus – a damn good one, but it certainly didn’t play a part in my purchasing the PS3 console and whilst I am annoyed Sony claimed “security issues” which now apparently count for nothing because of Mr Hotz, I wonder, why can’t it now be brought back?

In closing…..

Look closer at the comments surrounding the Sony DDOS, I think scratch under the surface of their previous support and it may just be wafer thin.

Goblin

If you are new to this blog (or have not yet read it) please take time to view the OpenBytes statement, here.

5 thoughts on “Could Anonymous be harming public opinion for the Hotz case?”

Actually I think that Anonymous weighing in is the best thing that could happen for Hotz. Most people don’t know that Hotz exists, or that Sony is doing anything to him. Anonymous just drew a lot of attention to Hotz, attention that he wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. This puts pressure on Sony, pressure that they’d rather not have to face.

So I’d call this a plus for Hotz. As to those who say it isn’t, well, remember all those ‘Persona Development Software Packages’ that HBGary was flogging? Guess who they were flogging them to?

That is certainly true, although I wonder for the vast majority of gamers, do they care? Certainly the Tech interested do and Ive made my opinions very clear, however does the average user rate the actions of Hotz above their own entertainment? I’d suggest not.

“This puts pressure on Sony, pressure that they’d rather not have to face.”

But looking at the gaming sites, I’d say more people are annoyed that they cannot get online and want the hackers to stop. In addition correctly or not, hacked consoles are being equated to online cheating, something which the vast majority of users have little patience for.

“So I’d call this a plus for Hotz. As to those who say it isn’t, well, remember all those ‘Persona Development Software Packages’ that HBGary was flogging? Guess who they were flogging them to?”

I’d agree, although out of all the allegations of “foul play” how many of them actually make it into the minds of the vast majority?

I’d bet that most of the allegations are being made by persona bots. I’ve been watching the message boards, and you’ve no doubt heard about the evidence Roy has been uncovering about human agents being used to attempt to set the tone of the online conversation. Even without what he’s turned up, I’ve been convinced for several years now that the corporations have been using nymshifters to try and control the flow of online opinions.

Places like yours and mine, where the posting rules have been tightened down, are a challenge to them. It’s harder for them to interfere here, or at my place, so they tend to leave us alone now. But take off the controls for a couple of weeks, and watch what happens.

It would be even worse over at my place. I’m semi-famous now, got my name in the first sentence of an article on Torrentfreak, an article that got mirrored all over the damned net. Wayne Borean is a pretty uncommon name. In fact as far as I know, I’m the only one, and every single Google hit going back 40 or more pages is me, and a lot of them are for my site. So I suspect I’d get every troll one the planet crawling out of it’s cave.

Oh well, I have no intention of loosening things up. Keeps the Viagra spammers out.